Slow Blues Construction Kit

[OG_Blues]

I just started looking at this material, and was thinking about how best to approach it.
Clearly, Griff is sending us a message that being able to play licks in different keys is part of the education in this course
But, being retired, lazy, always looking for the silver bullet and easy way, old with limited time left, etc.,
well, like they say,
Laziness is the mother of invention. Well I think somebody said that once.
So I decided to chart out what is in this course as an aid to understanding how to use the material to get started.

The first chart plots the 5 Lick examples against the 7 song positions to find what the corresponding key is.
For example, for Song Position #3, Lick # 4, the key is C.

The example licks provided are in the keys of G, A, C and C#, so let's assume that the novice soloist will want to start with making up some solos in these keys before getting more adventurous and having to transpose every lick, as you would need to do if you wanted to play in Bb for instance.

The second chart shows what the "best" lick or licks are for each song position for these 4 keys in order to construct a solo with little or no transposing.
As it turns out, you can use the examples as provided to create solos for G and C#. Any other key requires at least some transposing.

So looking at the chart, a solo in C# would use this sequence of licks: 3 4 1 4 4 1 (3 or 4).
Similarly for a solo in G use this sequence: 4 3 5 (1 or 2 or 5) 2 (2 or 5) (1 or 2 or 5).
As you can see, even with just these, quite a few different solos with some common elements can be created. I have no idea if these create good sounding solos or not - i have not played any of them - these are just theoretical combinations.

In the chart, where there is no directly usable example provided by Griff, I indicate the "closest" or easiest example to transpose via the nomenclature T2G which would mean "transpose lick 2 from the key of G".

Here's the chart. I hope this might help someone else get a faster start on using this material.
Tom

 

[Scott 2.0]

Thank you Tom. That is a nice addition to the course. It quickly communicates the approach and recognizes the multi key component of the course. A quick footnote on adding, for example, two frets to the T5G to get to the key of A - and it's all there.

 

[OG_Blues]

Scott - yes, that's right - I tried to pick the examples that would be easiest to transpose.
Also, for example, transposing a C# lick to C (or vice versa) is just a one fret move. It's pretty easy to look at the TAB and just play it one or two frets higher or lower, vs. a larger jump on the neck. Also, I find that certain licks really sound better at certain positions of the neck than others. That's probably purely psychological on my part though.

For purposes of transposing, I am finding it very helpful to first analyze each lick in terms of it's origin and structure.
For example, I make notes by each lick such as:
"left facing minor pattern with root on second string"
"Box 1 pattern starting on the 6th degree of the scale"
"start on second string root then shift to box 1"
etc.
Even though this is more information than just memorizing the lick, this approach makes it much easier for me to then transpose it to any other key.
I think this course is going to be really good for me. It's timely because I had already decided that this is the type of thing I was going to focus on next.
Tom

 

[Silicon Valley Tom]

Good morning Tom, and happy Sunday!

Thank you for your work. I appreciate your effort, and I know that others will make good use of the material you provided. Analyzing Griff's concept is a great exercise, and extremely helpful in understanding how to apply licks, and how to use them. Tying all this together is important to make good use of the material provided.

I like your approach using tables. Most of my working career was as an electronics engineer, so I like to simplify, organize, and teach others. I think that we will have a good number of contributions to Griff's concept, to help others understand how to apply it.

Of all of Griff's courses ( I have almost all! ) this is the one I am enjoying the most, next to the Acoustic Blues Course.

Tom

 

[Mr.Scary]

Griff says in the Introduction that you can use all licks in that position for that particular position but you can't swap out say Position 2 licks with position 6 licks and so on but I noticed on OG Blues PDF he does this and there are no position 6 or 7 licks. What's with this? Just asking.

 

[Mr.Scary]

Griff says in the Introduction that you can use all licks in that position for that particular position but you can't swap out say Position 2 licks with position 6 licks and so on but I noticed on OG Blues PDF he does this and there are no position 6 or 7 licks. What's with this? Just asking.

 

[Al Holloway]

Not looked in detail at this course. However I believe Griff says not all licks will work in all positions but they may. You still need to fit the lick to his other rules. Such as not starting a solo on note 1 and about mixing minor and major. So some licks may work in more than 1 position and some won't and others will if you adjust them a little. Also I believe there are 7 positions for the slow blues and 5 for the shuffle.

cheers

Al.

 

[OG_Blues]

Griff says in the Introduction that you can use all licks in that position for that particular position but you can't swap out say Position 2 licks with position 6 licks and so on but I noticed on OG Blues PDF he does this and there are no position 6 or 7 licks. What's with this? Just asking.

Mr. Scary - It appears you are misinterpreting the chart - I guess I left out an important detail - in the course, Griff provides 5 possible licks for EACH of the 7 positions. The chart indicates which of the 5 to select for that particular position. It is not suggesting interchanging licks between positions.
I don't understand your comment "there are no position 6 or 7 licks". For example, if you are playing in the key of G, and are at position 6 in the song, then the example licks to choose from include lick number 2 or 5 of the sample licks for position 6.
I hope this clarifies it.
Note, however, that position 2 and position 4 are both IV to I chord transitions. I have not experimented with the sample licks, but it may be possible that some of the position 2 and 4 licks may be interchangeable. Let your ear be the judge. Maybe Griff can comment if he's watching.
Tom

 

[Mr.Scary]

OG Thats helps.

 

[curtisatkinsjr]

quick question I am learning the Minor Pentatonic Scale position 1 & 2 for now. when I go the the licks in the blues construction kit, the licks are marked position 1 through 5, but how do I know which licks in the course would work for the minor pentatonic scale?

 

[Ivan]

Cool chart Tom. Thanks for taking the time, effort and posting it!

 

[Elio]

quick question I am learning the Minor Pentatonic Scale position 1 & 2 for now. when I go the the licks in the blues construction kit, the licks are marked position 1 through 5, but how do I know which licks in the course would work for the minor pentatonic scale?

If I'm understanding your question, boxes 1 through 5 are all the minor pentatonic scale but all in different positions on the neck and in different patterns. The positions 1 through 7 that the licks are organized by in the course have to do with where in the chord progression they are the best fit. It sounds like maybe you are confusing the lick positions with the pentatonic positions?

 

[curtisatkinsjr]

thanks you are correct sir. I got em confused. wish me luck guys i'm diving in